It is a shabby backdrop of bright stars:
one of the small interstices of time:
the worn out north star northward, and Orion
to westward spread in ruined light. Eastward,
the other stars disposed, – or indisposed; –
x-ward or y-ward, the sick sun inflamed;
and all his drunken planets growing pale.
We watch them, and our watching is this hour.
It is a stage of ether, without space, –
a space of limbo without time, –
a faceless clock that never strikes;
and it is bloodstream at its priestlike task, –
the indeterminate and determined heart,
that beats, and beats, and does not know it beats.
Here the dark synapse between nerve and nerve;
the void, between two atoms in the brain;
darkness, without term or form, that sinks
between two thoughts.
Here we have sounded, angel! –
O angel soul, O memory of man! –
And felt the nothing that sustains our wings.
And here have seen the catalogue of things –
All in the maelstrom of the limbo caught,
and whirled concentric to the funnel’s end,
sans number, and sans meaning, and sans purpose;
the lack of meaning has a heart-beat, and
the lack of number wears a cloak of stars.
(Conrad Potter Aiken)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Light Poems, Mind Poems, Time Poems, Soul Poems, Angels Poems, Space Poems, Brain Poems, Purposes PoemsBased on Keywords: maelstrom, limbo, faceless, concentric, funnel, heart-beat, backdrop, indeterminate, indisposed, priestlike, interstices